Parque Machia

I’ve been a week here at the park. Better than what I expected. You don't tell them that you're coming before hand, you just show up, and if you only stay for 2 weeks you work in quarantine with the sick (or crazy) animals. But, if you promise to stay at least a month they put you to work directly with the spider monkeys, capuchin monkeys or the pumas. I'm staying a month so they put me with the spider monkeys. If you aren’t too sure what exactly a spider monkey is than give 'em a quick google search and educate yourself. Unfortunately, they have a bad stereo type of masturbating on everything -- which is completely false, I've never seen them rubbing-one-out as of yet, but basically they are long and lanky, totally black, extremely affectionate, and look like little furry ninjas. I only work with 3 other people, and there are 29 monkeys, each with their own name and personality (at first they all looked exactly the same, but now I'm beginning to see the drastic differences). Basically every day we start at 7am, bring buckets of bananas up to their playground area in the park, let them out of their cage where they sleep and out they come, exploding from the cage doors like black fire rockets into the morning light. Only seven are on collars and long chords (which we switch to different runner throughout the day), but the rest are free to roam and swing amongst the vines and trees of the jungle. We then cuddle with them for several hours making funny little gurgle noises and playing with the babies, then clean their cage which they have been pissing and shiting in all night, clean their little blankets that they snuggled under and then prepare lunch consisting of an array of fruits. After lunch we do a little more cuddling and some more affectionate squeaky sounds, a bit more snuggling and then make 'em dinner which is a medley of veggies. At 6pm we call 'em back to their cage for bed (which is about as easy as getting a 3 year old to file your taxes), and the day is done. Quite rewarding and satisfying. It's just so nice to actually be doing something. I have something, actually a gang of somethings, to take care of; a purpose besides what beer to drink or which club to go to. I absolutely LOVE it. I never thought I would be able to get so close to monkeys unless I had some damn Master's degree in Zoology or something. Words can't explain the feeling of a big furry monkeys running up to you, jumping on your chest, wrapping its spidery arms around your body, nuzzling its face into you and making strange adorable loving monkeys noises. Once in a while they'll get mad at you for some reason or another, but mostly because you did something stupid that they didn't like, and once in a while they'll get in fights with each other, but basically it's one of the most refreshing and spiritually rewarding things I have ever done. I'm becoming so attached to them already, I'm already sad to leave in 3 weeks.